Life habits of fireflies (life of fireflies)

Fireflies like to live in humid, watery, and weedy places, especially along the banks of streams and rivers. There was an old saying in my country called "Corrugated grass grows fireflies," which reflects this habit. The adults do not feed, but only suck a little dew. The female emerges more than a week later than the male, and then she flashes fluorescent lights in search of a mate. When the male sees the flash of light, he flies over to mate.

After mating, the female usually lays her eggs on shaded shrubs, weeds or rocks close to the water. A female insect can lay thousands of eggs in her lifetime, but the strange thing is that she lays these eggs in 5-6 different places. This may be to preserve her offspring more effectively. The eggs are slightly round, about 0.5 mm in diameter, and there are usually 300-400 eggs in one piece. The newly laid egg shell is soft and takes about 1 week to harden. After about 2 weeks, the development of the larvae can be seen from the outside of the egg shell. The eggs begin to hatch after 3 weeks. The average egg stage is about 1 month. The color of the eggs changes from creamy yellow to white, then to milky white, and then turns to dark black before hatching.

The hatching of the larvae usually takes place at midnight. It bites the eggs with its upper jaw and then breaks them out. The hatching process takes about half an hour. The newly hatched larvae are about 1.5-2 mm. After hatching and emerging from the shell, the larvae immediately burrow into the bottom of the water. At the bottom of the water, they dive under rocks or sand during the day and come out to feed at night, mainly feeding on molluscs with shells in the water, especially snails.

Larvae are generally 6-7 years old, and mature larvae can reach more than 20 mm in length. The larval stage is long, usually about one year, and some even exceed two years. The mature larvae will crawl ashore from the bottom of the water when they pupate, usually on rainy days. When a suitable place is selected, a cocoon chamber is made with sand, in which it pupates. The pupa period lasts for 10-15 days. After the adult emerges, it does not move at first and stays in the cocoon chamber for 2-3 days. Some species stay longer. During this period, the color of the body increases, the body becomes hard, and finally it comes out of the cocoon and comes to the weeds or bushes by the water.

Adult beetles like to be active on sunny, high temperature, windless nights, and hide in dark and shaded places to rest during the day. There are three peaks in night activities, respectively around 21:00, 24:00 and 3:00 in the morning. After the adults mate and lay eggs, they complete their historical mission and end their lives peacefully.

animal tags： Fireflies Coleoptera Lucidae